Analysis Of Darkness Visible By William Styron

The atrocities inflicted on the mental health of soldiers were often unrevealed to the public, however, some soldiers were able to express their first hand experiences through literature.

In the First World War soldiers on the western front went through an enormous range of experiences from extreme boredom to appalling stress. The majority of soldiers fighting saw horrific things on a daily basis which none of us would like to, this triggered mental illness in the men. Also several other factors caused this like the awful conditions of the trenches and the way people were treated, it would have been very upsetting and disturbing.

According to the World Mental Health Survey Initiative (2011), woman in the United States are six times more likely than a man in China to have experienced a depressive episode. The report concluded that

Julia Kristeva’s Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia explores the melancholic subject within Freud's psychoanalytical framework. It is a well-observed symptom of depression that language dies and that the ultimate result of life-threatening depression is total silence. The melancholic subject’s problem is simply an inability to speak in a meaningful way. Kristeva argues that a person afflicted with melancholia is incapable of talking about their illness, especially in terms of her post-Freudian psychoanalytic practice. Unlike traditional feminists who always query, deny, even criticize Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic

Psychological Condition Essay Many great works of literature revolve around characters who possess some type of mental sickness. It helps to keep the story interesting and forces you to look deeper into the character’s minds to find out what they are really thinking. In “Hamlet”, the Shakespeare play, the Prince Hamlet himself is observed to be quite messed up in the head, although nothing is actually confirmed. In contrast, Holden Caulfield from, “The Catcher in the Rye”, shares the entirety of his story from the bed of what is believed to be a mental hospital. After psychoanalyzing these characters as they go about their respective stories, it is clear that their psychological states are very similar, particularly when it comes to suicide and depression.

Until the late 1800’s when psychoanalysis was introduced, there was little to no distinction between classifications of mental illness. The female protagonist in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Bartleby of Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivenor” are both characters that seem to suffer from depression. Gilman’s narrator suffers from a ‘temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency’ that regresses into insanity and irrational behavior as Bartley is unmotivated, passive resistant and reticent. The regressing mental illnesses of the

Depression has presented itself in society well before the scientists of today were able to begin research and truly try to understand this disease. Depression in its earliest form was known as “melancholia”. The earliest accounts of melancholia appeared in ancient Mesopotamian texts in the second millennium B.C. ("Mental Help Historical Understandings of Depression Comments", 2007). Mental illness back during these times were thought to be of demonic possessions and/or punishments from the almighty God. Society at this time did not believe that there was a problem that was taking place in the brain and changing the behaviors of individuals affected by the diagnosis. Darkness Visible by William Styron is vulnerable account of his own stretch

Lee Smith’s work is more modern and shows the transition she has seen throughout her life in how mental disorders are seen. When first presenting her father's mental health issues she puts in quotes manic depression to show the derogatory term that was used at the time to describe a person with bipolar disorders condition (Smith 41). Perkins on the other hand grew up in a time period where mental disorders were only associated with females. There was no such thing as therapy, but it is seen on page 648 that indeed doctors did medicate their patients to deal with this, Perkins in this case was given phosphates. One common method of expressing themselves was through their writing. Perkins wrote all about her adventure with the yellow wallpaper and the woman trapped behind it, while Smith wrote a novel after her son passed away, both were their ways of coping with mental health issues in their lives. Perkins even got to the point where she would secretly write because John forbade her from doing so. This was their way of dealing with mental illness, but throughout the course of time this has progressed into more professional ways of helping those living with a mental health disorder which is seen in Lee Smith's more modern

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD, was recognized as a disorder with specific symptoms and was added to the Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980. Before this acknowledgement, father of psychology, Sigmund Freud, had a developed theory on it. Freud’s Seduction Theory states: “both forgotten childhood trauma and a variety of adult stresses could cause neurosis” (Davis 1). Although not declared an official disorder until the 20th century, characters in literature have displayed the symptoms of PTSD and committed horrific acts as a result of the stresses they underwent earlier in their lives; a modern psychologist is calling this The Medea Complex.

I sat in the common area as the other patients colored and played cards. What they were doing didn’t really matter to me, I just wanted to be alone. I’d always feel like I was drowning, so it came to me as a surprise to me when the nurses told me that if I were breathing, I was winning. At night I’d lay on the blue plastic mattress and miss my room and everything it stood for. The blue lights that are strung along my bed, illuminate my nights. The pictures of the one I love line my walls, they are the barrier that protects me from the rest of the world. The blue plastic mattress draped in thin white sheets stood for the cold empty feeling I couldn’t get rid of. My nights were full of my thoughts bombarding my

Wind in my hair, the sun beating down on my skin, the sound of a hull skimming across the water and crashing through waves on foreign shores are the emotional memories that are deeply ingrained in my persona. I now understand that two of my passions, sailing and traveling, have been instrumental in my decision to pursue a career in psychiatry.

From a young age I had been aware that certain people weren’t happy with who they were. I had a specific person in my life that sometimes hurt herself in order to feel better. Even though the problem was recognized, depression or self harm wasn’t something people in my life openly talked about. So I grew into my early teen years believing that any sign of mental illnesses was something that should be hidden. I saw it as a secret that couldn’t be discussed with anyone and definitely not revealed. I spent a majority of my adolescence on my computer, joining new sites and meeting different people. For the most part, it was a very positive influence. I’ve been exposed to certain things that have largely affected the goals I have for the future. It’s connected me to all parts of the world and allowed me to gather hobbies that I never would have had found if it weren’t for the sites I spent my time on. So many positive aspects emerged from my many hours online but like most things, it had it’s drawbacks. I was quickly exposed to blogs that promoted self-harm, suicide, depression, and self-loathing. What later came as a shock to me, was how other people on the site viewed them.

Mental disorders have been present in literature ever since writing for pleasure/entertainment first emerged. Stories of kings going crazy of their power, fairy tales depicting cannibalism, and even lovers ending their own lives together. Hamlet is a fantastic example of mental illness in classic literature; carefully depicting the seemingly mad Hamlet avenging his father's murder, Shakespeare carefully and subtly tells the story in a way as to leave the reader to decide whether Hamlet is truly mad. An example of mental illness in modern Literature could be The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. The novel tells the story of Esther Greenwood struggling through depression and exploration of her sexuality.

emotions (Lister et. al, 2008, p. 248). The role of the art therapist is not to prohibit the

Many poets, writers, and artists suffer with the monsters of mental illness, however, Sylvia Plath may be one of the most iconic. Many believe living with debilitating mental illness can aid in creativity. Throughout Sylvia’s short life, she produced brilliant yet immensely troubled writing. Sylvia Plath’s struggle with both Bipolar Disorder and Depression is communicated within her writing through her use of creativity, visceral language, and emotional rawness. Her inner turmoil can be interpreted in her brilliant and vehemence evoking poetry as well as her novel, The Bell Jar. Although in Plath’s time she was considered tortured, she is held in the highest esteem in today’s literary world.